As you may or may not have heard, the US Treasury will soon be redesigning the $10 bill, and the new $10 will have a woman's face on it. They haven't chosen which woman yet, so I'm trying to start a social media campaign to have them select Grace Hopper, Navy Rear Admiral and computer programmer extraordinaire, for the role.
The full post I made on facebook:
Quote:
The $10 bill is getting a redesign, with a woman as the new face. The woman herself has not been chosen yet. Suggestions so far have included Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and others.
While these are all worthy choices, the woman who I would like to see on our new $10 is Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. "Amazing Grace" was a computer scientist beginning in the 1940s as part of the Navy Reserve, where she created the first programming language compiler and pioneered the use of programming languages. No matter what computer or phone you're using to read this message, it was built on the foundation that Grace Hopper created to help us win WWII. While so many other computer science leaders have used their expertise to make their fortunes, she instead used it to serve her country. She served in the Navy until the age of 79 (when she was involuntarily retired).
And yet far too many people have never heard of Grace Hopper. Her name is not taught in schools. You won't find her in the history books.
Our country has a long way to go towards recognizing its great women. But it has even farther to go towards recognizing its great women of science. By choosing Grace Hopper we honor both our women in science and in the military.
Join me in spreading the word to place Grace Hopper's face on the new $10 bill.
#TheNew10
#AmazingGraceForTheTenDollarFace
So... Thoughts? Ideas? Will you help me spread the word?
"Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?"
- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
I'm all for putting a woman on American money, but Alexander Hamilton more or less single handedly created the American banking system. Can't we redesign the twenty? Andrew Jackson was kind of a dick.
Good ideas are usually just bad ideas a stubborn person eventually fixed.
I agree with you, but we don't have much choice in the matter. As far as I understand it's a matter of timing. Bills are chosen for redesign based on a number of factors, and the personality of the representative face is not one of them. So it's either the ten now, or the twenty in another decade or so.
I do find it rather darkly amusing that the first bill to have a woman's face will be the ten which is probably the least used of the smaller bills (excepting, of course, the two).
Maybe we can have Hamilton bump off Jackson for the twenty when it comes up for redesign?
"Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?"
- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
I have an MA in history, and "kind of a dick" is exactly the phrase I use to describe Jackson.
"To such simple minds, my advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic!"
I don't know...
You could probably drop the "kind of" part and be even more accurate.
"Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?"
- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
Out of those choices, I'd probably have to give my support to Harriet Tubman.
Jackson was a dick, no question, but he was also what we would now call a badass. (I say this as somebody who has been to the Hermitage several times, and seen a play written about him that featured an adversary calling his worth into question - although I was too young to understand a lot of that at the time.)
As for the original post, I fully push recognition of Admiral Hopper most chances I get. However, there are two reasons that I've already nominated Elizabeth Cady Stanton as the woman to be featured. First, the official announcement includes mention of a theme of "democracy," and Ms. Stanton was one of the key leaders of the women's suffrage movement. Second, the redesigned bill will be issued during the year that includes the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the US Constitution (which, for the benefit of our non-American co-forumites, granted women the right to vote). Susan B. Anthony has had her turn in the spotlight on the silver dollar coin in the 1970s and 80s; I'm of the opinion that Ms. Stanton is fitting.
Slate magazine published a profile last night of four other women who make pretty good candidates, too, aside from Tubman and Parks. Of their nominees, I'm most partial to Phyllis Wheatley.